Last Few of the Beach

Well...we are home.  Unfortunately.  I could totally live at the beach.  We did things a little differently this time.  This is the first time in a long time, its only been our family on vacation.  We also stayed in a house instead of a condo.  I thought we would really miss not having a pool, but I didn't at all.  I think the boys missed the lack of young girls to chase around though...oh well!!

Here is the view from our porch:



 Gracie and I totally bonded over our love of the beach. She wanted to stay out all day long. I know her eyes are closed in this shot, but I love it. She drug that chair all the way down to sit right next to me. I love the sand on her face :)

She spent hours, rolling in the surf, jumping over waves, collecting shells, or playing in the sand. She wouldn't even go in to eat lunch. I was happy to stay out with her :)

Braden brought a friend with him. (Jared snapped the family pics for me :)

I love this shot of Braden. He never wants to take pics and when I do get one, he is very rarely smiling with his mouth open. This shot is so natural and totally Braden. I am thrilled to have it!

I love this one of Bryce too. Catching them when they're relaxed is fun :)

So that's the end of our beach vacation.  The summer is flying by.  There are only a few more baseball games and honestly, it's almost time to start thinking about school uniforms!!  It amazes me how fast time goes by.

Annual Photo Shoot

I promised my boys that if they were agreeable during pictures this year, I would make them super quick.  We all honored our promises.  The results...a couple of cute shots and nobody was unhappy.  This might be a first!  Sure, I would have loved to have taken more but there were more important things to do...like fish and build sand castles :)

This is my favorite of the day.  Cade shot it for me :)


The fab 5


I like this one because it shows how tall the boys are.  Cade passed me up this summer (I'm 5'6")...hard to believe!!!




They're not perfect, but I so appreciate the effort they all gave with good attitudes :)  That is what I think of when I look at these images and it makes me smile big :)

Beach 2013

We are at the beach this week...my happy place! I can't remember the last time we went on a vacation with just our "little" family. It has been fun just hanging out together. We are so busy at home and Richard is traveling so much for work, that it seems like we hardly see each other sometimes.

These two absolutely love the beach!  They will happily stay out all day long...fine with me :)






I can't get over how much Cade has grown and changed in the past few months.


You can't really tell, but these 3 are fishing.  Braden brought a friend with him who loves to fish as much as he does.  They are catching bait fish to use in the evening :)


Braden and Jared...sweet friends.

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I don't many shots of Braden, and he was not happy about me taking these.  So happy to have it though because this is totally him.




Love this shot of him setting up his rod.


This girl has to be part mermaid!  She does not leave the water!  She jumps waves, looks for "she shells", or just rolls around in the water.  She has even told me she wishes she had a tail like a mermaid :)


I do have pics of Bryce...just haven't downloaded those yet :)

Dance, Dance, Dance!

This was the weekend...the girl weekend. The weekend that I don't spend at the ballpark with my hair in a ponytail :) Well...Saturday, at least! Revue 2013!!





The girls were so excited to finally dance in "the big show".

 They were true to their personalities. Gracie was completely in her element and loved every minute of the stage. I truly believe she thinks the whole event is about her! Wesleigh was busy trying to make sure she remembered every step and executed it exactly right! I love how different they are. The crowd, however, seems to appreciate Gracie's style of dance a little more. She is definitely a crowd favorite and as we walked through the crowd afterward, we got lots of smiles and compliments. You can see their different styles in these pics :)

























It was my brother's turn to dance in the "daddy dance". Their theme was disco. OH MY...was it GREAT!!

Keep in mind, my brother is a city councilman in our city. I told him I think I have his next campaign photo here!!

Yes...he had a solo part :)



Are those costumes not the cutest???



The other themes for the daddy dances were Motown and Annie. SO cute!!

 After the show, the girls were thrilled to get flowers. Grandparents:

All my boys were happy to attend and support their sisters. They love to see what they do. They did, however, get a little antsy as we got into the 4th hour!! Especially since Braden had played 2 baseball games starting at 8:00 that morning! Next year, they will split the show into two :)




I just love these boys. My girls don't know how good they have it. Their brothers will do anything for them!!

I almost forgot. This might be my favorite pic! I happened to be able to see this backstage wing from my seat. Don't you know...I spent the whole dance before the girls' watching to see if I could get a shot of one of mine. LOVE how she's watching those big girls!!

It's Almost Time!

There's been lots of hard work happening these days in the dance studio!  Just 2 more weeks until it's revue time!!  Not only do I get to watch my girls perform, but my niece will be in the same revue.  Since she's younger, my brother will be joining her in the daddy dance.  I can't wait!  They have a disco themed dance :) Richard is very jealous!!  ;)

Here are a few pics I snapped during practice the other day:











Can't wait to see them in action on the big stage :)